I spent a week driving the GTX…the screaming bearing on the alternator was too much to bear, so swapped the alternator off the old engine and hoped for the best. It’s much quieter, fortunately. Unfortunately, the water pump started weeping, so we went ahead and swapped that out, too.
Another few days of driving it and I figured I was all set to go! I was driving the $2010 GTX back up to Oakland on Wednesday to pack up a few things before hitting the road. Let me just say, rush hour traffic is not the time you want to find out the hard way that you have a leak in your brake system.
Turns out, my mechanic is trying to kill me…the 323 brake hoses don’t clip into the 626 struts (they don’t make stock struts for the GTX anymore) and I forgot to ziptie them into place. The left (driver’s side) one rubbed up against the tire and wouldn’t you know, that friction thing will get you every time.
I’m okay, the car’s okay, and with a little duct tape and zip ties, I made it back to Oakland. The problem with having such an odd car, though, is that nobody carries the brake hoses normally. After a few hours of calling different auto parts companies, Carquest came to the rescue and had a new hose to me yesterday.
Of course, this morning, I woke up to a new oil leak…a big one, it looks like - I’m a quart down since yesterday. I’m not 100% sure I’m going to be on the road tomorrow. Already called the family and said I loved them, but I’m heading straight to the Challenge if I can get this back on the road at all. I’m starting to have some serious doubts…
